SAN DIEGO – Morris Claiborne's debut went as well as the first-round pick could have hoped.

Claiborne started against San Diego and was credited with two tackles before calling it a night in the first half with the rest of the Cowboys’ first-team defense.

“It was the first time playing in a game since the national championship,” the first-round pick out of LSU said, “but just being out there with my teammates, running around with those guys, it was fun.”

The Chargers did not test Claiborne deep, which he felt was surprising.

“I was looking for them to come after me every snap,” Claiborne said. “I just tried to play as honest and as square as I could.”

He thought he would have played more, “but I guess the coaches saw what they needed to see so they pulled me out,” Claiborne said.

His adjustment to the NFL has taken some time, first because of a wrist injury that knocked him out of for the entire offseason and then because of a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee that kept him out of training camp for a week.

“That’s behind me now,” Claiborne said. “I missed a lot of time, but I can’t sit back and dwell and wish I could get those snaps back. I wish I could but I know I can’t, so it’s time to move on from there and continue to battle with my teammates every day.”